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Planning on selling most of my fish and resetting my hobby, and I'm just gonna try to breed 3 different species of fish for a bit of profit this year. I originally planned on breeding-
-Albino cherry barbs
-Salamander dumbo bettas (or nice dragonscales if I can find any that aren't full mask)
-Amatitlania septemfasciata
but I have lately been thinking of replacing some of those.
Instead of the cherry barbs, I could breed forktailed blueye rainbows, or praecox rainbows.
And in the event that I can't find A.Septemfasciata, I could breed cryptoheros cutteri, or A.Myrnae instead
Question is, which of these would people want more?
for example, would people want forktail rainbows more than cherry barbs? would they want c.cutteri more than A.septemfasciata? I know septemfasciata and myrnae are both CARES species, so I considered both. I had a cutteri for 7 or 8 years, so they have a pretty special place in my heart, that's pretty much the only reason I considered them.

Planning on selling most of my fish and resetting my hobby, and I'm just gonna try to breed 3 different species of fish for a bit of profit this year. I originally planned on breeding-
-Albino cherry barbs
-Salamander dumbo bettas (or nice dragonscales if I can find any that aren't full mask)
-Amatitlania septemfasciata
but I have lately been thinking of replacing some of those.
Instead of the cherry barbs, I could breed forktailed blueye rainbows, or praecox rainbows.
And in the event that I can't find A.Septemfasciata, I could breed cryptoheros cutteri, or A.Myrnae instead
Question is, which of these would people want more?
for example, would people want forktail rainbows more than cherry barbs? would they want c.cutteri more than A.septemfasciata? I know septemfasciata and myrnae are both CARES species, so I considered both. I had a cutteri for 7 or 8 years, so they have a pretty special place in my heart, that's pretty much the only reason I considered them.

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Tbh it all depends on the stock of the vendors for the lfs's but if you joined a local fish club (association) you could sell and swap your fish.

Most of the stuff my LFS's and local vendors don't usually get in, but they do take in similar things, I'm friends with my LFS owner and I know he'd take most of those, he just doesn't take big aggressive fish, and he doesn't take normal a.nigrofasciata convicts, since someone gives him an entire batch of juveniles every week or two lol
He usually gets uncommon things in, but I haven't really seen anything like the stuff I plan on breeding in his shop, other than the bettas, of course, which he'd still take.
Other than my LFS, I can auction some of the stuff off at the local aquarium club meetings, I'm sure they'd like uncommon stuff like forktail rainbows, cutteri's, albino cherries, septemfasciata, etc, whatever I end up with.

Also I just found out Jeff Rapps has Krobia Xingu's, so I can take those into consideration as well.

Most of the stuff my LFS's and local vendors don't usually get in, but they do take in similar things, I'm friends with my LFS owner and I know he'd take most of those, he just doesn't take big aggressive fish, and he doesn't take normal a.nigrofasciata convicts, since someone gives him an entire batch of juveniles every week or two lol
He usually gets uncommon things in, but I haven't really seen anything like the stuff I plan on breeding in his shop, other than the bettas, of course, which he'd still take.
Other than my LFS, I can auction some of the stuff off at the local aquarium club meetings, I'm sure they'd like uncommon stuff like forktail rainbows, cutteri's, albino cherries, septemfasciata, etc, whatever I end up with.

Also I just found out Jeff Rapps has Krobia Xingu's, so I can take those into consideration as well.

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Go with your gut on what you like to breed. The Forktail Rainbow sounds like a winner.

Staff Member

Just a little reality check.
I have found that after1 spawn alone, I usually saturated my local market with a species(especially with cichlids).
In my city of 1 million people, there may have been 10 people who want a certain fish.
In order to sell an entire spawn, I had to be willing to ship.
If you have a rep as a reliable cichlid expert, this helps,
and have started with F0 or at least F1 breeders.
Most cichlids are not sellable in LFSs until they reach about 2", or you will only get pennys on the dollar.
So you will need a number of tanks to grow them out in, over 4-6 months, separated by sizes. You will also need to do multiple feedings per day, with large daily water changes to get maximum, rapid growth.
In the 80s I had a breeding pair of managuemse, before they became common place, 1st spawn I was getting almost $1 each for a 2" juvie, by the 2nd spawn they were going 10 juvies per $1, 3rd spawn I could not give them away in a 50 mile radius.
Since then I have had at least 50 different species of cichlids (African, Central and South American) and other type fish, spawn in my tanks, all with the same results.

Staff Member

Same where I lived, at the local aquarium club auctions, angels, colorful rift lake Africans, fancy guppies (whatever was trending) sold well.
Most Central Americans were almost given away, and I say this as a Central American cichlid fanatic.
At one of the last suctions I attended, a mated pair of haitiensus went fo less than $10, while a bag of black guppies went for $60.

I'm in the CCA, I've seen F1 convicts from different locales sold for at least over $15 in auctions
not doubting you, just saying anything that isn't a man made CA cichlid or developed like marbles or platinums usually sell well. and if I went for the krobias, those would be even better

Ten years ago I bought 30 tropheus kirizas (African cichlid) for $423 Canadian. Two years later I sold the group for $395. Does not sound too great but over 15 months I sold 303 juveniles for $1491 so came out ahead $1463 not counting food and operating costs. Most I ever made in 15 years of breeding African cichlids!

Over a period of 15 years I sold 700 juvenile Yellow Labs (African cichlid) for $700 [ranging mostly from 75 cents to $1.25 ea].

But I am not telling you to raise African cichlids. I am not interested in cherry barbs and I am not interested in breeding cherry barbs. Does not mean that you should not do cherry barbs. Get what you think you will enjoy and if they breed it is a bonus and if you sell enough to cover your costs it is a bonus.

American cichlids tend to not sell well because each person cant own many of them at time. They often get big,aggressive, and require an specific person to love them the way a lot of people on MFK do so community type fish or African cichlids is a good place to start if you are looking to make a couple bucks.
Ask LFS owners for something they want, don't get often, and sell well. For me that was Dumbo ear mosaic guppies and super red bristlenose. I would order some online then breed them and brought them in in medium size batches every month/every other month and he always took them immediately because no one bred them and I had em. Also I say find a fish you actually like. Dont just bred to bred, do it because of a love for that species. Your care and passion for the hobby burns out quick otherwise.